Does anyone else wonder if this will lead to commercial market farms for horses in the US in the future?? To fit some need for horsemeat in other countries.

I'm not against slaughter in the least, there has to be an outlet for unwanted horses. Rescues just can't take them in and neither can people like us who get dumped with unwanted nags.

BUT the thought of intentionally raising horses for slaughter turns my stomach... Feeding them out like cattle. I'm not sure why, I understand that they are livestock...

jaydee

12-06-2012 04:59 PM

THe EU countries have had to conform with the passports system for some years now to bring horsemeat going into the foodchain up to the same regulations as any other meat going that route. The rule only affects your passport if you have 'allowed' your horse to go for slaughter for human consumption - the majority of people in the UK have their horses euthanised and cremated - this can be done through a slaughter yard but you have to pay for the service - cannot sell the horse as meat.
The decision on which drugs are allowed is based on how long they stay in the animals system after administeration based on risk to human health in the same way that livestock are treated.corporal - I have no idea what the two medical notes are - interesting that the one is 'anonymous'. There's nothing new in babies that are deemed to have no quality of life being allowed to die - but the term 'quality of life' and couldnt be made based on physical disability but on a child having no mental capacity to function and how much suffering the baby would be put through to try to preserve its life, it is taken very seriously and it is up to the parents to decide.
I'm not saying I agree or disagree because I've never been in that situation
As for the state of the NHS - Well thats been ongoing for some time now. There are more people taking out of the pot than are putting in. Far too much money is spent on managers and admin. and not enough responsibility for taking care of your own health - people who have health problems from obesity, alcoholism, smoking, drugs etc. There has always been private healthcare in the UK but you dont get a reduction in your NHS contribution if you do take it up. There are problems but the UK population are too used to having the service to give it up now.
No way could its economy be compared to that of Greece, its a surprisingly wealthy country considering how tiny it is

Reno Bay

12-06-2012 05:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Conway
(Post 1787495)

Does anyone else wonder if this will lead to commercial market farms for horses in the US in the future?? To fit some need for horsemeat in other countries.

I'm not against slaughter in the least, there has to be an outlet for unwanted horses. Rescues just can't take them in and neither can people like us who get dumped with unwanted nags.

BUT the thought of intentionally raising horses for slaughter turns my stomach... Feeding them out like cattle. I'm not sure why, I understand that they are livestock...

I actually know of a horse meat farm somewhere in the midwest. It's owned by a Canadian man, but he breeds and raises hundreds of thousands of horses specifically to go to slaughter. They seemed healthy enough...very very few of them were ribby or looked unhealthy. Even their hooves looked fine from the videos and pictures I saw (kind of funny a they were using this guy as an example of bad horse care). What I saw was no different than en-mass pasture living. To me, if they're raised for food it doesn't turn my stomach so much as someone who's selling a companion for slaughter...

wetrain17

12-06-2012 05:31 PM

I'm surprised this hasn't been done a while ago. I'm not looking forward to see an increase in abandoned horses, but if it isn't safe for humans to it, then it needs to be done.

WickedNag

12-06-2012 05:37 PM

Posted via Mobile Device

WickedNag

12-06-2012 05:42 PM

It is my understanding that the Horses all have a passport. the passport is given to pleasure horses and slaughter horses, a slaughter horse can get a passport change to pleasure horse but a pleasure horse can never become a slaughter horse. This has been on the books for a long time and has been in the making of being enforced also for several yearsPosted via Mobile Device

jaydee

12-06-2012 06:02 PM

Canada has already started its passport system to comply with EU regulations, I did find this fact sheet on the internet which gives details of permitted and non permitted drugs for animals going into the food chainFact Sheet: Medications and US Horsemeat : Veterinarians for Equine Welfare
I dont like the idea of horses bred for meat either but its not in a producers best interest to starve them if they want best carcass value - sounds harsh but it is reality.
As long as some low end breeders are producing above market demand they are in fact breeding meat animals.
Interestingly my husband recently spent a week in France on business and ate in the hotels and different restaurants every day and didnt once see horse meat on a menu

verona1016

12-06-2012 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Conway
(Post 1787495)

Does anyone else wonder if this will lead to commercial market farms for horses in the US in the future?? To fit some need for horsemeat in other countries.

I'm not against slaughter in the least, there has to be an outlet for unwanted horses. Rescues just can't take them in and neither can people like us who get dumped with unwanted nags.

BUT the thought of intentionally raising horses for slaughter turns my stomach... Feeding them out like cattle. I'm not sure why, I understand that they are livestock...

This is what has always confused me about horse slaughter. People keep telling me horse meat it's a delicacy in some countries, but I can't imagine that you get high quality meat from random unwanted horses (some old, some skinny, none of them having a reliable history of medications used). It seems you'd need to raise them specifically for meat production, slaughter them at a young age, etc. to be suitable for human consumption and worthwhile to ship overseas. Like cows. I can only assume that in reality most of the horse meat goes to food for other animals (zoos, etc.)

I'm not against horses being raised for meat if they're free range- it doesn't seem like a bad life for a free range animal of any type to be able to roam and be well fed for its whole life until being humanely killed. But a bunch of horses raised in dirty, overcrowded dry lots? That would bother me :-(

As far as the Equine Identification Document, that seems to be a requirement of the Canadian government. It seems like most countries aside from the US have some sort of requirement to register horses and keep some sort of passport-type document for them.